I Welcome Your Comments

Reckless Driving in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court

Reckless Driving
Posted by Mark Matney of Holcomb Law, PC Newport News, VA
www.matneylawpllc.com
__________________________________

Two recent cases demonstrate that extra preparation by minors can have an extraordinary impact on their cases. The two clients, both age 17 when they were stopped, were charged with reckless driving at speeds over 100 mph. I have seen Circuit Court judges on the Peninsula sentence minors to active jail time at these speeds. However, both of these clients had their cases dismissed. No reporting to DMV, no demerit points, no misdemeanor convictions, no insurance rate adjustments, no suspended licenses, no jail. The charges were outright dismissed.

For the first case, the young lady was placed on house arrest with an ankle bracelet pending the trial date. She was only permitted to leave her home to go to school and work and was not permitted to drive for most of the pretrial period. In addition to all of these complications, she volunteered many hours of community service before her court date. After court she had to avoid any new violations pending a review date. The second client, a young man, completed two driver improvement classes and volunteered before court. After the court hearing the judge required a significant number of additional community service hours and the avoidance of any new charges before his review date.

These clients helped me and my associate attorney, Abigail Hockett, to achieve the best possible results by following our preparation instructions and then exceeding the judge’s expectations before their review dates.